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  <div class="section" id="distributing-python-modules">
<span id="distributing-index"></span><h1>Distributing Python Modules<a class="headerlink" href="#distributing-python-modules" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
<col class="field-name" />
<col class="field-body" />
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Email:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference external" href="mailto:distutils-sig&#37;&#52;&#48;python&#46;org">distutils-sig<span>&#64;</span>python<span>&#46;</span>org</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>As a popular open source development project, Python has an active
supporting community of contributors and users that also make their software
available for other Python developers to use under open source license terms.</p>
<p>This allows Python users to share and collaborate effectively, benefiting
from the solutions others have already created to common (and sometimes
even rare!) problems, as well as potentially contributing their own
solutions to the common pool.</p>
<p>This guide covers the distribution part of the process. For a guide to
installing other Python projects, refer to the
<a class="reference internal" href="../installing/index.html#installing-index"><span class="std std-ref">installation guide</span></a>.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">For corporate and other institutional users, be aware that many
organisations have their own policies around using and contributing to
open source software. Please take such policies into account when making
use of the distribution and installation tools provided with Python.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="key-terms">
<h2>Key terms<a class="headerlink" href="#key-terms" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<ul class="simple">
<li>the <a class="reference external" href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi">Python Packaging Index</a> is a public
repository of open source licensed packages made available for use by
other Python users</li>
<li>the <a class="reference external" href="https://www.pypa.io/">Python Packaging Authority</a> are the group of
developers and documentation authors responsible for the maintenance and
evolution of the standard packaging tools and the associated metadata and
file format standards. They maintain a variety of tools, documentation
and issue trackers on both <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/pypa">GitHub</a> and
<a class="reference external" href="https://bitbucket.org/pypa/">BitBucket</a>.</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="../library/distutils.html#module-distutils" title="distutils: Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code></a> is the original build and distribution system first added
to the Python standard library in 1998. While direct use of <a class="reference internal" href="../library/distutils.html#module-distutils" title="distutils: Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code></a>
is being phased out, it still laid the foundation for the current packaging
and distribution infrastructure, and it not only remains part of the
standard library, but its name lives on in other ways (such as the name
of the mailing list used to coordinate Python packaging standards
development).</li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/">setuptools</a> is a (largely) drop-in replacement for <a class="reference internal" href="../library/distutils.html#module-distutils" title="distutils: Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code></a> first
published in 2004. Its most notable addition over the unmodified
<a class="reference internal" href="../library/distutils.html#module-distutils" title="distutils: Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code></a> tools was the ability to declare dependencies on other
packages. It is currently recommended as a more regularly updated
alternative to <a class="reference internal" href="../library/distutils.html#module-distutils" title="distutils: Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code></a> that offers consistent support for more
recent packaging standards across a wide range of Python versions.</li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://wheel.readthedocs.org">wheel</a> (in this context) is a project that adds the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">bdist_wheel</span></code>
command to <a class="reference internal" href="../library/distutils.html#module-distutils" title="distutils: Support for building and installing Python modules into an existing Python installation."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">distutils</span></code></a>/<a class="reference external" href="https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/">setuptools</a>. This produces a cross platform
binary packaging format (called “wheels” or “wheel files” and defined in
<span class="target" id="index-0"></span><a class="pep reference external" href="https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0427"><strong>PEP 427</strong></a>) that allows Python libraries, even those including binary
extensions, to be installed on a system without needing to be built
locally.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="open-source-licensing-and-collaboration">
<h2>Open source licensing and collaboration<a class="headerlink" href="#open-source-licensing-and-collaboration" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>In most parts of the world, software is automatically covered by copyright.
This means that other developers require explicit permission to copy, use,
modify and redistribute the software.</p>
<p>Open source licensing is a way of explicitly granting such permission in a
relatively consistent way, allowing developers to share and collaborate
efficiently by making common solutions to various problems freely available.
This leaves many developers free to spend more time focusing on the problems
that are relatively unique to their specific situation.</p>
<p>The distribution tools provided with Python are designed to make it
reasonably straightforward for developers to make their own contributions
back to that common pool of software if they choose to do so.</p>
<p>The same distribution tools can also be used to distribute software within
an organisation, regardless of whether that software is published as open
source software or not.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="installing-the-tools">
<h2>Installing the tools<a class="headerlink" href="#installing-the-tools" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The standard library does not include build tools that support modern
Python packaging standards, as the core development team has found that it
is important to have standard tools that work consistently, even on older
versions of Python.</p>
<p>The currently recommended build and distribution tools can be installed
by invoking the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pip</span></code> module at the command line:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">python</span> <span class="o">-</span><span class="n">m</span> <span class="n">pip</span> <span class="n">install</span> <span class="n">setuptools</span> <span class="n">wheel</span> <span class="n">twine</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p>For POSIX users (including Mac OS X and Linux users), these instructions
assume the use of a <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-virtual-environment"><span class="xref std std-term">virtual environment</span></a>.</p>
<p class="last">For Windows users, these instructions assume that the option to
adjust the system PATH environment variable was selected when installing
Python.</p>
</div>
<p>The Python Packaging User Guide includes more details on the <a class="reference external" href="https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/current/#packaging-tool-recommendations">currently
recommended tools</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="reading-the-guide">
<h2>Reading the guide<a class="headerlink" href="#reading-the-guide" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The Python Packaging User Guide covers the various key steps and elements
involved in creating a project:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/distributing/">Project structure</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/distributing/#packaging-your-project">Building and packaging the project</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/distributing/#uploading-your-project-to-pypi">Uploading the project to the Python Packaging Index</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="how-do-i">
<h2>How do I…?<a class="headerlink" href="#how-do-i" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>These are quick answers or links for some common tasks.</p>
<div class="section" id="choose-a-name-for-my-project">
<h3>… choose a name for my project?<a class="headerlink" href="#choose-a-name-for-my-project" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>This isn’t an easy topic, but here are a few tips:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>check the Python Packaging Index to see if the name is already in use</li>
<li>check popular hosting sites like GitHub, BitBucket, etc to see if there
is already a project with that name</li>
<li>check what comes up in a web search for the name you’re considering</li>
<li>avoid particularly common words, especially ones with multiple meanings,
as they can make it difficult for users to find your software when
searching for it</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="create-and-distribute-binary-extensions">
<h3>… create and distribute binary extensions?<a class="headerlink" href="#create-and-distribute-binary-extensions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>This is actually quite a complex topic, with a variety of alternatives
available depending on exactly what you’re aiming to achieve. See the
Python Packaging User Guide for more information and recommendations.</p>
<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<p class="last"><a class="reference external" href="https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/extensions">Python Packaging User Guide: Binary Extensions</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>


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  <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
  <ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Distributing Python Modules</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#key-terms">Key terms</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-source-licensing-and-collaboration">Open source licensing and collaboration</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#installing-the-tools">Installing the tools</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#reading-the-guide">Reading the guide</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#how-do-i">How do I…?</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#choose-a-name-for-my-project">… choose a name for my project?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#create-and-distribute-binary-extensions">… create and distribute binary extensions?</a></li>
</ul>
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